Aurora (singer)
| birth_place = Stavanger, Norway | occupation = | years_active = 2012–present | module = | genre = * folktronica * synth-pop * baroque pop }} | label = | associated_acts = }} | website = }} Aurora Aksnes (born 15 June 1996), known mononymously as Aurora (stylised as AURORA), is a Norwegian singer-songwriter and producer. Her debut EP Running with the Wolves was released through Decca Records in May 2015, receiving widespread approval from online music blogs and national press. Later the same year she provided the backing track for the John Lewis Christmas advert, singing a cover of the Oasis song "Half the World Away". This cover appears as a bonus track on the deluxe version of her debut studio album, All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend, which was released worldwide on 11 March 2016. She has sometimes been compared to Susanne Sundfør, Emilíana Torrini, Florence and the Machine, Eivør, Kate Bush, Lana Del Rey, Lorde, First Aid Kit and Björk. https://sentireascoltare/recensioni/aurora-running-with-the-wolves-ep/ Early life Aurora Aksnes was born in the Stavanger University Hospital in Stavanger, Norway, on June 15, 1996. She spent the first three years of her life in Høle, a small town where her parents, May Britt and Jan Øystein Aksnes, had been living 15 years since they finished their studies in Stavanger and found a home near the forest to raise their daughters. In her house in Høle, Aurora developed her taste for nature, singing and ancient clothing, such as long skirts and hats. Later the family moved to the north of the country, to a house in the woodlands Os mountains, a remote municipality in Hordaland, near Bergen. Aurora has described this place as “There are almost no cars and the roads are small and bumpy and there are lots of trees everywhere, it's very quiet and the internet is bad.” . She has also compared it to the fictional land of Narnia. When she attended school, her sisters - Miranda and Viktoria Aksnes - worried that she could be harassed by other students, due to her personality and "weird" way of dressing. “I used to be terrified of people who wanted to hug me,” she said. “I did not like to be hugged as a child. And I used to be terrified of one of my teachers at school, but then I met him a few months ago, and it was really nice. It’s weird how things change." Aurora is the only musician in her family. She started learning to play piano when she was six. "I really love classic music, and when I found this piano in the attic, I just started pressing the keys and trying to figure out my favorite classical songs. I started to make melodies that I recognized. There was something special about being able to play just by yourself – something about the emotion in it made me want to continue playing." At age nine, when she had a better handle of the English language, she began writing songs. Her first original composition was titled «I Had to Dream», which referred to how hard the world can be. Songs such as «Running with the Wolves», «I Went Too Far» and «Runaway» were written in this early stage of her life, «Runaway» being written when she was 12. She has mentioned she was influenced by artists like Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Enya and The Chemical Brothers. Career 2012–2016: All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend Aurora's first track "Puppet" was released in December 2012, followed by her second, "Awakening" in May 2013. Her first single signed to her labels Glassnote Records and Decca Records, "Under Stars" was released in November 2014, and "Runaway" followed in February 2015. Her second single, "Running with the Wolves" was released in April 2015. She appeared at summer festivals such as Way Out West, Wilderness and Green Man Festival. Aurora's third single, "Murder Song (5, 4, 3, 2, 1)" was released in September 2015 and has received continued support in national press, on national radio and popular online music blogs. Aurora performed at the 2015 Nobel Peace Price Concert. She has played a sold out headline show in London and supported Of Monsters and Men at Brixton Academy in November 2015. Aurora recorded a cover of the Oasis track "Half the World Away" for the 2015 John Lewis Christmas advert. Her next single, which came after "Half The World Away", was released in January 2016, titled "Conqueror" and a music video was uploaded the following month. Her debut album All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend was eventually released on 11 March 2016, receiving generally positive reviews from critics. After releasing it, she went on to embark on her European tour, making a number of visits to the UK in between. She featured in British band Icarus' song "Home" and released a cover of David Bowie's ''Life on Mars''. On 14 March 2016, Aurora made her American television debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, performing "Conqueror". Aurora soon after performed the track on Conan. On 25 July 2016 she performed her cover of "Life on Mars" on The Howard Stern Show. The following night on 26 July, she performed "I Went Too Far" on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. 2016–present: two part album On the day of releasing her debut All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend, Aurora said that it was "the first album of many" that she has planned. As of 12 May 2016, after coming back from her European tour, the singer announced that was ready to begin writing and producing more material, which will eventually form her second studio album. She has said in a Facebook event that she has 15 demo songs and has written 1,000 songs/poems. Since the announcement, Aurora has released "I Went Too Far" as a single, and a music video for the track was released on 4 July 2016. According to Aurora, her second album was expected to be released in the fourth quarter of 2018. Between April and August 2018, the singer released two singles, "Queendom" and "Forgotten Love", which would be included in the first half of a two-part album divided into "steps". Aksnes recorded the album during her stay in France in January of that year, and the production included the producers Askjell Solstrand, Roy Kerr and Tim Bran, with Aksnes herself also involved in this aspect. Some of that new material was anticipated in live performances, including festivals like Lollapalooza and Coachella. While maintaining some of the themes and stories of the previous album, this production would mark the first time that Aksnes makes inclusion of political and sexuality themes in her songs. Most of the new inspiration for those came from the interaction that she had with her fans during her first musical tour. The music video for "Queendom" saw its release in May 2018, and it included a message to her LGBT fans; such message was portrayed by Aksnes herself kissing one of her female dancers, during what was described as a "big kissing party" that shows that "every type of love is accepted and embraced" in the singer's "queendom". On September 28, 2018, the singer surprisingly released the first half of her second album on EP format, under the title Infections of a Different Kind (Step 1). The EP features eight songs, and the title itself comes from the eighth track included on it, which Aurora declared as "the most important song I've ever written". . A Different Kind of Human (Step 2) followed on June 7th 2019. In April 2019, Aurora contributed to two songs on The Chemical Brothers's ninth album No Geography. Influences Aurora has mentioned Enya, Bob Dylan, Underworld, Leonard Cohen and Björk as her influences. She also stated in a BBC Radio 2 interview that she had great love for many Scandinavian metal bands, as well as David Bowie. Personal life Aurora did not really expect to ever play music professionally: “I never really wanted to sing, or to be on the stage at all,” she said. “I just wanted to write, maybe become a doctor or a physicist or something of that kind.” When she was 16, Aurora performed a "really long and boring song about world peace" at her high school's leaving ceremony and a classmate put the video online. Around the same time, a friend uploaded a track Aurora had recorded as a Christmas gift for her parents to SoundCloud. These two songs were discovered by a representative of Made Management, a Norwegian management company, who invited Aurora to visit their office for a meeting in early 2013. Tomorrow's Greatest Music Today|language=en|access-date=2019-10-18}} "At first I thought no," she recalls. "But then my mum said I should think about the idea of sharing my music with the world because maybe there's someone out there who desperately needs it. And that could actually be a good thing." In a few hours both songs received thousands of visits in Norway, which earned Aurora some notoriety in her country, in addition to a fan base on Facebook. Aurora then set about working on her songwriting for around a year before giving her "first proper live performance" at a Norwegian music festival. "I don’t think I was born to be an entertainer, I used to really be afraid of playing live on-stage. Obviously it’s terrifying! But now I look forward to it every time. I’ve learned not focus on myself, cause it’s not about me. Now I only think about giving everyone the best experience. A magic moment." Aurora has mentioned that she has been in relationships with men and women. When asked in an interview about her sexuality, she stated, "I just like to enjoy what is there, and I like to explore. Just love everything around you and you’re loving yourself." Discography Studio albums Extended plays Singles As lead artist As featured artist Promotional singles Other appearances Songwriting credits indicates an un-credited lead vocal contribution. Music videos Filmography Short films Television Awards and nominations *2014.4.8: A scholarship of 50,000 Kroner from the Festivalen by:Larm's Forbildepriser ("Exemplar Prize") Notes References External links * * Category:Living people Category:1996 births Category:LGBT musicians from Norway Category:LGBT singers Category:Spellemannprisen winners Category:Norwegian female singers Category:Norwegian pop singers Category:Musicians from Bergen Category:Norwegian songwriters Category:Synthpop singers Category:21st-century Norwegian singers Category:21st-century women singers Category:Women in electronic music